ES 558A - Research Seminar

Spring 2011

Library/Info Research Assignment

Due Thursday, January 27, 11:59 p.m., uploaded to the Drop Box in the Sakai course site

This assignment is intended to help you identify, define, and understand the information
landscape of your thesis topic. If you wrote a literature review last semester, you’re welcome to
use material from it.

All citations should be formatted in Council of Science Editors (CSE) name-year style, which is
easy to do if you’re using Zotero or another citation manager. If you need to install the CSE
name-year style in Zot, you can find it here: http://www.zotero.org/styles.

1. Identify the most recent AUNE thesis as closely related to your topic as possible. Provide a
citation, and, in one paragraph, describe the research questions posed and types of methods
used.

2. For your thesis topic, identify:

a. 3-5 databases that are most useful. Justify each choice in a couple of sentences.
b. 3-5 journals that are most important/productive. For each journal, list the dates of full-
text coverage available through the AUNE Library and the start year (i.e., date of first
issue) for the journal. In a sentence, describe how you found this information (including
the name of the person you asked, if you did).

3. Using Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory, identify:

a. a subject heading (used by Ulrich’s) for a topic/subtopic of your research. How many
periodicals are published in the subject area?
b. a journal of which you were not aware in a subject area related to your topic.

4. Identify at least one open access journal in your field. How did you find the journal?

5. Identify two experts in your field. Locate their dissertations (hint: There’s a database for just
about everything). Provide a citation for each dissertation, and, in one paragraph, describe the
research questions posed and types of methods used.

6. Choose 6 documents/sources on your topic that are a range of formats (e.g., articles, book
chapters, government reports, web sites, etc.).
a. Provide a citation for each.
b. Identify whether each item is a primary, secondary, or tertiary source, and justify your
classification in one sentence.
c. Identify whether each item is scholarly and whether it is peer reviewed/refereed. Explain
how you made your determination.

7. Think about information research that you engaged in recently or that you’re currently doing.
In three or four paragraphs, describe the process you follow or steps you take when you need
to find information on a topic. Be as detailed as possible.